Education by Design, Not Default: How Brave Love Creates Fearless Learning

There is great hope.

The weight of childhood is heavy in America today. “Burned out” is not supposed to describe children.

But it does. A growing list of performance requirements now comes accessorized with a longer list of labels and disorders for children who struggle to measure up. Required to earn (stickers, grades, a place in a good reading group or on the best team…) many children are confused about their identity and their purpose.

Even more confusing is the lack of fulfillment children experience even when they get everything right and earn all the prizes. Is this it? This performing and earning cycle feels like bondage, not freedom. In front of a screen feels like a safe place to hide. Where is the hope?

Childhood isn’t a season of measuring up. It’s a season of growing up. Education by Design, Not Default: How Brave Love Creates Fearless Learning is a bold declaration of the transformational power of experiencing love in childhood. More than a romantic dream or a heart emoji included in a text, love is the fuel of maturity. Love sees us when we struggle—and love helps. Children need help, by design. For generations who have experienced education as performing and testing, Education by Design, Not Default offers to recalculate the route we’re offering to our children at school and at home. We can provide children an honest and love-based childhood—and offer the world more than perpetual adolescents. Love can launch trustworthy adults.

Janet Newberry is an educational consultant committed to repurposing education. She is also a writer, speaker, and a self-proclaimed love researcher. Janet and her husband Doug travel America in an Airstream named Freedom, helping families have real conversations without shame, so children can ask for help in relationships of trust. Find out more on her website janetnewberry.com and join Janet and Doug on their Brave Love podcast.